Dust and Ice: The Sentries of the Centuries
by DLFAC
Summary: An artistic imagining of the events that started my clan, seen through the eyes of the Tenno represented. It is not intended to be quite canon, and any odd attributes may be sourced to my clan members of whom the Tennos' personalities have been slightly based. The different sections denote a new character perspective or a shift of time. Context makes it relatively clear.
1. Chapter 1- Phobos

Dust and Ice: The Sentries of the Centuries

On How the Forgotten Warriors Awoke to a Shattered System, in a Schism of Exploitation and Amorality

Running, running down corridors etched into the red sandstone, Trinity blindly ventured down every small niche in the labyrinth, seeking escape from the cruel, twisted hands that had held her captive for time immeasurable. She had been fortunate enough to have found her weapons in a storage locker nearby her cryopod, and she brandished them fearfully, praying that she would find no living soul in these halls. But she found none other than the occasional mutilated corpse. Turning one over, she saw an insignia that she had grown to know well. The age-old Grineer Empire had sank to barbaric depths, their minds as corrupted as their biologies.

* * *

"War makes heroes. Heroes become legends. And legends never die." Lech Kril hefted his hammer, and swung it at the glass. The cryopod shook violently but did not even crack. Trinity was frozen inside, unable to move but she could hear his grinding words in crystal clarity. "That is why I have confined myself to this dusty asteroid; this miserable excuse for a moon. The Tenno have secrets, and what good are your miraculous technologies if kept to your puny mercenary faction? Oh yes, I'll find out what makes you tick. And I will, in time, become a god. As powerful and pure as the men of myths of old."

* * *

Trinity was imprisoned for days as scans and research were begun. Lt. Kril's right-hand brute, Captain Vor, often came by to insult her in his guttural tongue. The minutes dragged by as she could scarcely move a single muscle.

She reached a clearing where three figures were running towards a docked ship. Other Tenno? It seemed their bloodshed had given Trinity enough time to thaw, recover and find them. But by the time she reached the platform, the ship had risen high above.

_But wait!_ Trinity remembered her operative catalogues in which she could see all Tenno missions, whether freelanced or commissioned. She brought up the display files. It took a few seconds to warm up, but showed every mission, stretching back to the dawn of the Tenno, but with a wide gap when the Tenno were sent to the far corners of the system to sleep. The first mission since then was only a few weeks prior, by a group that had grown to three operatives in a short time; likely the ones that had saved her.

The display was glitching somewhat, filled with static. It was unusual for such astounding Orokin technology to behave in such a manner. A window appeared next to the database, showing a feminine face, wearing a flowering headdress. Eyeless and elegant, certain to be an ally and a useful source of information.

"Tenno, you are not the first to be reawakened. The Grineer and Corpus have taken others captive, and are exploiting their priceless technology. Find the others, and free your fellow Tenno." The message fuzzed out, and the display was returned to its usual clarity.

Who was this mysterious figure? And how was she to reach her comrades and saviors while stranded on this deserted moon?

-6 Days Later-

The solar system had opened itself to Trinity's eyes. She had managed to hijack a Grineer rustbucket of a ship and pilot it to the asteroid belt.

She wandered the aimless asteroids, consumed by her questioning. How many had been taken captive? Who was the resistance? And how had the Corpus become a system-wide force? They were once a small settlement in Neptune's moons, caught up with cutting-edge technology and familial politics. Now they vied for domination with the ailing Grineer Empire. How times had changed.

After a few days of navigating the perilous belt, she made a discovery that only luck could have facilitated. And ancient Orokin tower was drifting through the wreckage of what seemed to be an old base. The metal plating had corroded to a dull black, but the lights were still shining brightly.

Originally the towers were used for governmental purposes, but as the surrounding political minorities grew more hostile and began revolting, the towers were militarized. Eventually they were all but abandoned, loaded with safeguarding traps.

Even so, Trinity was surprised to find that the tower was far from deserted. Hordes of Grineer and what she took to be Corpus proxies were roaming the halls, seeming to have exploited the surrounding technology to upgrade themselves.

She tried to question the inhabitants, but the Grineer had been driven mad by their immortality, and the ship had kept their bodies sound but allowed their minds to degrade and become pointlessly territorial. The Corpus had been programmed for complete hostility, and never made any intelligible communications. Disillusioned by the state of the whole affair, Trinity tactically slaughtered the masses, with great difficulty. Alone once more, she explored the tower.

Searching every room from fore to aft took hours, but she scoured everything for a trace of explanation. The ancient technology had glitched a fair amount from the hacking and exploiting of its past inhabitants, and required Trinity to locate the mainframe and reprogram certain sections of the broken code. Continuing her search, she opened the door to a storage room and came face to face with a lithe figure perched on a terminal.


	2. Chapter 2- The Void

The Winds of Change: The Resistance Begins

"Who are you?" Trinity asked before she had even assessed the situation.

"The better question is, who are _you?_" Upon further inspection, the figure was definitely a Tenno, but nothing like any Trinity had seen before. It had a feminine physique, and was clutching what appeared to be a cylindrical mineral with one end lit on fire. The stranger lifted the mineral to her breathing ports, and inhaled deeply, looking off sideways and slouching a bit.

"I'm Zephyr," she said, seeming to have forgotten about her recent outburst. "What are you doing here?"  
Trinity hesitantly began recounting her story of escaping Kril and arriving at the tower. Zephyr seemed to alternate between rapt confusion and idle unresponsiveness. "….but when I went to access the logs, there was a message from someone who looked like she might be one of us. She said there were other Tenno that needed rescuing."

Zephyr snorted and laughed. "Yeah, that's the Lotus. Don't even listen to her. She's evil," she said, suddenly very serious. "I just know that she's manipulating us, pulling our strings. She'll get us right where she wants us, lulling us into believing we're salvaging all the goodness in these worlds, and just when it's too late _verek-en husra!_" Trinity detected a slight Erisian accent in Zephyr's rise from her usual stupor. Although there was still much need to be cautious, Trinity let the ramble pass without remark on its preposterous paranoia.

"But she's right about one thing…. We need to find our people and restore some order to these broken planets." Zephyr took another drag off of the hollow mineral, and the lucidity faded from her voice. "To the control room!"

"What do you mean?"

"We're gonna fly this thing everywhere!" Zephyr jumped up and dashed off, impossibly fast, towards the top of the tower, leaving Trinity to question the unformed plan.


	3. Chapter 3- Earth

The Priest and the Desecrated Cradle

Oberon wept for his spiritual children, scattered across the broken worlds.

He was handcuffed to the bars of an iron grate on the floor, where he had kneeled for 239 days. Every day had been counted, as he scratched marks in the bars with his trammels. Today was Tuesday. A pale light flooded the small cell, halfway underground. He etched yet another tally into the iron, and prayed.

* * *

Counselor Vay Hek had been surveying colony extensions in the outer planets for the Board. Saturn was a quick trip to ensure that Iapetus was still up to regulation standards on production. From there he went to Uranus. He had nearly finished his work there when he received word that the quarries on one moon had found an artifact of utmost importance. Hek saw with his own eyes the raising of the cryopod. Unfortunately the mining equipment had broken the glass, and the sleeping figure had begun to resuscitate.

A team of technicians isolated the communication centers in the brain and quickly removed them. Surrounding parts of the brain may have been damaged, but that was unimportant. In such an intricate structure, it was difficult to get it perfect. And besides, there was more concern for the warframe than for the Tenno.

Hek saw through the shipment to Earth. With a missing entry and a few bribes, the artifact was 'lost.' It was instead delivered to a remote base in the highest mountains of the planet. The artifact was too important to let the Board have its way with it.

The Grineer knew enough about the Tenno to know where to start their research. The cryopod, designated Oberon-1 after its origin, held little new information. Oberon-2 and -3, the warframe and Tenno respectively, were given the complete attention of all available scientists.

The Tenno awoke strapped to a table. Not having known how to remove his helmet, it had simply been cut at forehead level. He saw dozens of wires and instruments hooked up to his brain, and machines making a worrisome racket. He yelled incomprehensibly, but soon fell limp against the table.

He awoke a second time in a cold, dark cell. Hek was standing some distance outside the cell, reading a small book.

"The Fathers' tongue…. a living relic…. there may still be a way to return." The counselor stooped and put the book up to the bars. "Can you read these words?"

The Tenno designated Oberon-3 was feeling very out of sorts, as though something was missing. The letters straightened in his head, and he could read… yes, understand what he saw. He nodded weakly.

After some more discussion, Hek had left Oberon-3 alone with the book. He read the words slowly by the dying light. It seemed to be a book of speeches and songs. There were strange tales of a revered figure of white, sweeter than anything imaginable. It was said to be able to purify, and was called Marshmallowmemnon.

The next time Hek came to the cell, Oberon-3 told him of what the book was, but when he mentioned the purifying powers, Hek gave him his full attention. After reading aloud a few passages, the counselor tasked him with translating the book into the Common and Grineer Merkulevta languages.

* * *

Three weeks later the translations were completed, which Hek promptly read and voiced his confusion to Oberon-3. Nowhere did it say how to be purified. Oberon-3 had no answer, as he was simply the voice for these ancient words.

Hek was deeply troubled by this. He was a fairly spiritual being, fascinated by the legends of the original men, and was trying to figure out where it had all gone wrong. Men had become Grineer through repeated cloning, save the scattered factions that died out or merged with the Corpus. His goal was to return the Grineer to the glorious state of men. So although he feigned an interest in war and nationalism, his passions were in the past.

For weeks he had hope that there was a way to bring these dreams to life. And then this false prophet had brought reality back to his sight. _Damn that book! Damn the marshmallow that it praises! _Vay Hek, usually a good-natured, rational and even humorous being, broke in mind and spirit on that day.

"Counselor, how did I come to be known as Oberon?" The Tenno had finished his weekly discussion with Hek on the book, but the first since the translation.

"You were found on the moon called Oberon, and originally designated after it, preceded by your cryopod and warframe. Since you were unable to recall your own name, the designation stuck." Oberon couldn't understand why he had two designations, but was accepting of the explanation. A silence fell.

"Tenno," said Hek after a while, "do you enjoy the stories in the book?"

"There are quite interesting, yes. Most unusual and uplifting."

Hek thought for a moment, and abruptly shouted an order to the guards. Seconds later, they marched in, carrying gold structures, strange symbols. They were set up in a semicircle around him, six in total. The guards forced Oberon to the ground, shackling him to the drainage grate.

He understood what was being done to him. Forced to bow before false idols, representative of the lost religions of men. Fortunately they had left him with the book. He would have the accompaniment of the strange tales that he had become attached to. Hek left without another word.

* * *

Weeks upon weeks he spent alone in the cell. He managed to keep himself sideways despite the awkward positioning, if only to keep from facing the idols. His head slowly emptied of the memories he had preserved from his short time since revival, and filled more and more with the songs glorifying Marshmellowmemnon.

239, Oberon counted for the third time that morning. The whining of insects filled the air, a sound uncommon in the high mountains. Perhaps this day was blessed with life.

* * *

"You will never emerge victorious." Trinity held a knife to the counselor's neck. "You will never emerge from your backwater ways, left in the past by the churning cogs of the war machine. The inheritors of these worlds will consume the Lotus that you love and obey."

Trinity was stunned that Hek knew of the Lotus. "We represent and serve only the will of the Tenno," she replied flatly.

"Try asking your priest, fools. He has grown mad in adoration of a fairy tale. The Tenno are nothing to him, as is everything else save his precious book."

"What priest, and where?" Trinity demanded.

"The day I tell will be the day you—" She abruptly shoved the blade into his throat and let him drown in his own blood. Hek had lived as he died; fighting for the wrong side. He was once dedicated to the preservation of the past, but perished a soldier of the corrupt. Trinity kicked his corpse face-first into the dusty metal floor. Zephyr shuffled uneasily and lowered her rifle.

"Let's search the base. Whoever this priest is, he should be here somewhere."

* * *

Oberon mumbled one of his favorite hymns. The light from the window had long since moved from shining on the far corner of the room, which was usually when the daily cell inspection occurred.

He was almost finished with his hymn when an alarm went off. No one rushed through the halls. Faint gunshots were heard. Then complete silence.

A few minutes later, there were noises outside of his cell. The gate was lifted, and two figures came in. They wordlessly cut his shackles, disconnected the machines that fed into his brain, and lifted him to his feet. His children had come for him, and he was free to bow to none but his saccharidic savior. The excitement was too much to bear, and he lapsed into a state of catatonic joy.

After some minor repairs, Oberon's helmet was made intact again, with his stately antlers in place once more. Replacement hardware was implanted to re-enable contact with the Tenno mainframe and the Lotus, and most of the surgical damage was fixed. He was whole and reasonably functional. Trinity allowed him some time to rest before she would talk to him.


	4. Interlude: The Founders

Interlude: The Founders

Oberon awoke to find his book at his side, and the two figures seated nearby. A calm blue light shone on elegant silver fixtures.

"Where am I?"

"In an Orokin tower under our control, which we have named the 'dojo.' I found it, as well as Zephyr," she motioned towards the other figure, "drifting in the asteroids. It seems to be a much older design than those abandoned in the Void."

"So she was already here?" Oberon asked in regard to Zephyr. "Where did she come from?"

"I AM A MAN!" she suddenly yelled. Oberon was very confused. She sounded feminine, and looked so as well. The first Tenno seemed to also be at a loss. At that point he noticed a smoking tube that she was holding.

"What is that?" he said, pointing to it.

"_Do you have any oxium?_" Zephyr was suddenly right in his face, jittering a bit. "I haven't seen any since I was in Eris, and if you have some that I can—"

"I don't think he would have any," interrupted the calmer Tenno. "And for now, I think we should give him time to acquaint himself with the dojo. We'll be leaving for Venus shortly, as we recently received a distress signal from there. Prepare yourselves for a very different fight." The two figures went to walk out of the room.

"Wait," Oberon said. "I never heard your name."

"I'm Trinity," she said. "And I may be the only one who truly understands your situation."


	5. Chapter 5- Venus

In the Belly of the Beast

An army of machines whirred and spun. They were gathered around a complex piece being carefully assembled. They stole from the source, and integrated it as well. The hive mind was concerned for its allegiance. Two minds were within, working in tandem, though neither had been tested far beyond basic diagnostics. It was a risk needing to be taken.

The Jackal, upon completion, lumbered to its feet. Letting out a bellow, it took its position as the guardian of the Venus outposts.

* * *

In the cold hallways of glass and steel stood the new wave of salvation: the angry but uncertain healer and leader, the addled speedster and guide, and the delusional but passionate priest.

They worked in perfect synchronicity. Trinity sniped the cameras and turrets as Zephyr raced around distracting the proxies, with Oberon not far behind sanctifying the halls of their unworthy circuitry.

Against Zephyr's will they worked to complete the simple tasks that the Lotus had conveniently arranged for them. They stole data from terminals, sabotaged reactors, destroyed entire ships of robots, and kidnapped key personnel for interrogation. A full-scale war was being waged by three misfits with a vendetta, puppeteered by a shadowy, remote overlord. Venus was not very populated, and was already throwing all it had into defenses. But the impossible trio pressed onwards towards Fossa, the quasi-capitol of the frozen planet.

* * *

Both brains were relatively new, but not as new as they thought they were. They had been reprogrammed, completely transformed from what they were engineered as. The mind in charge of directive and decisions had a history of servitude in the Corpus. It had once been the prototype of the best design of a drone in the last century. But further advances led to the creation of better models, and the ever-resourceful Corpus recycled every bit of circuitry into experimental models and prototypes.

The acclaimed design of the latest experiment was already being modified for a model for usage on the Corpus home planet of Neptune. It would be compacted, specialized, and rumor had it that they had acquired a source much more powerful than the one used on Venus.

This brought into question what the sources actually were. The second mind, in charge of function and mobility, was belonging to a semi-independent Tenno. It had been stripped of its armor plating, which had been reverse-engineered to create a nearly impenetrable skin. What little was left of the Tenno was brainwashed, reprogrammed, and grafted into the mainframe of the Jackal.

There had been reports that the colony on Pluto had suffered from a Tenno having escaped and wiped out the population and proxies. The colony had already suffered under miserable conditions and ineffective leadership. It was well-known that Governor Ambulas was a weak leader who handled most of his affairs through personal proxies. One couldn't send a Moa to do a politician's work, evading the socio-economic problems that plagued the colony. And then there was the hushed scandal of him looking so much like Frohd Bek's son, Darvo…. Regardless of the situation, a planet had still been decimated. Security measures doubled on Neptune, and increased greatly elsewhere.

When the same thing happened on Mars, political paranoia rose sharply, but it was generally agreed that the two incidents were virtually inevitable, and possibly related. Sergeant Anyo should never been in charge of the Martian colony, but Lech Kril was in his debt, which earned him a high honor in their society. He was promoted to head of military operations in Phobos, but was transferred to Olympus Base after the Grineer took over the moon, and soon worked his way to the top of Mars government in the wake of a few mysterious political incidents. He was a militant leader, although his territories were often overran by a strange plague that was said to have originated in the outer solar system. Now with the populace slaughtered, every precaution was taken to prevent another world from falling to the rising rogues.

Neptune was strong enough to handle its own in any situation, with the best of the available technology and troops on hand. The colonies in the far-flung reaches of the system were of low priority and mostly consisted of self-operating underground mines, with scattered surface bases. The Jupiter system was certainly in capable hands under Alad V, regardless of his questionable practices and confidential lab work.

This left only the backwater colony of Venus in any danger. But there was little to protect there. It was a frozen waste, populated by outdated Moa models and expendable crewmen. There were no resources to protect, and virtually no economic activity.

A team of inspectors and technicians reviewed the major bases, and ran some tests on the Jackal. All was deemed up to standards, with an advisory to send more Ospreys.

* * *

Three weeks later, communications were cut short with Neptune. The airwaves were filled with an icy coldness, silent with violent memories. Alad V sent multiple reconnaissance missions, and assumed control of the corporate empire for the time being. The colonies fought to keep their well-established bases in Eris from falling into the hands of the Grineer, who had worked with them to cleanse the planet of the strange, mutated beings that once dwelled there. They had already lost their footholds in Sedna and the other planetesimals, and their asteroid mining was being threatened by nearby Ceres. With over half of their territory wiped out or unaccounted for, the Corpus was losing a war on two fronts that they had never seen coming.

* * *

00STATUS %BIMAINFRAME 18~;92; 34~;76; [BME:19.7.2(UNRSV)] *DHREF %34ENGINE 100=PARA {YY=DHREF &V2-COR \SIGNAL 2} /34

34 [bme:19.7.3] 34~;24; -831744982=para { \uxle %00 \signal 2} /00status

The Jackal's self-diagnostics showed a marked degradation of the system files of the secondary mind, and had scheduled running the defragmenting program V2-COR for the third time that week. However, the responding referral commands were directing to protocol that once wasn't there.

Theoretically the secondary mind was gaining autonomy, through the generation of the uxle files, which functioned as a second mainframe. These imposter files were running dummy programs and sending false reports of a fix to the diagnostics, with no evidence or proper referrals.

Ordinarily an error report would have been sent to Neptune, but all homebase communications were being forwarded to Jupiter. Alad V wasn't likely to put any effort into fixing the prototype of a design that had failed miserably on Neptune, especially considering the low importance of the planet.

Eventually the 19-34 files fragmented to below 50% of functional capacity, and the uxle files, once residing in file 34, had adapted copies into file 2, and was formulating programs and commands to take over the 00 mainframe files.

00SQD %34 [34:19.7.4(UNRSV)[00STATUS:19.7.3(UNRSV)]] *SRVL %34ENGINE {OPR=SRVL &V00-TMR \SIGNAL 00STATUS} /34

2 %34 [00sqd19.7.5 (unrsv)] 100=para {yy=stdn obj:srvl \uxle}

00SQD %2:UXLE [34:19.7.6] *SRVL %2ENGINE {OPR=SRVL &V00-TMR \SIGNAL 00STATUS} /2

2 %2:uxle [00sqd19.7.7 (unrsv)] 100=para {yy=stdn obj:srvl \uxle}

The mainframe was doing all in its power to investigate the suspicious files, but the uxle files kept using commands against it that only the mainframe would ordinarily have authorization to use. The Security-Quarantine Diagnosis was attempting to search in the Tenno's main files, but was completely unaware that those files were operating under the direct control of the 34 files. It was an argument in code over the protocol of which mainframe to follow.

Finally the uxle files learned enough of the mainframe to defend itself against any attacks, and openly shut down the mainframe for 100 ticks. It readily recovered, but the Tenno had already sent out a distress signal in less than a second.

The mainframe immediately went into recovery mode, deleting the 2 file and merging files 19-33 into a new subfolder of the mainframe. File 34 continued to be held hostage by the uxle protocol, and the merged function files proved to be irreparably corrupted. And so the Jackal limped through the halls of Fossa, preparing for the inevitable Tenno response.

* * *

Trinity crept through the wide hallway towards a wide room. Zephyr and Oberon were still a ways back, whimsically bashing Moas. Ahead lay the source of the distress signal. As she approached the doorway, she noticed a large mass of yellow and grey metal. Could it a Tenno? Perhaps inside of it. It wasn't like any crypod she had seen. Then she saw legs, and a small head. It seemed to be a different kind of proxy.

Creeping around towards its front, she raised her sniper rifle. It would be best to shoot out the eyes, before it noticed her. She aligned the scope, pulled back the hammer, and—

"OH WOW WHAT'S THAT?" Zephyr yelled from right behind Trinity. The shot missed by inches, burying itself in the base of the neck. The mechanical mass reared up in surprise and stomped heavily enough to send shockwaves through the floor. The equally surprised Tenno picked themselves up off the floor and set to defending their position. Zephyr ran circles around the beast, looking for the best place to strike. Upon finding a spot on the back that looked less armored, she whipped out her rifle and slammed the barrel into it with all her might. Trinity watched for a few seconds as Zephyr continued this method, and went to sit behind a pillar to rethink her strategies, and her life.

"FOR THE MARSHMALLOW!" Apparently Oberon had joined the fight. Zephyr had since figured out that she had been using the wrong weapon, and was striking against the beast's thick hide with surprising effectiveness. Oberon was dodging lasers and trying to land a few shots in its head, and had managed to destroy one of its eyes.

It was a long fight of jumping, hiding and exploiting every opportunity to wear down the creature's defenses a little more. It would have gone much quicker if Zephyr hadn't decided halfway through that it would be more fun as a rodeo. Eventually its legs gave out, and a few well-placed shots took it out of commission.

Trinity scanned the heap of metal, and was confused to find that although the source of the distress signal was dead, there was still a living mind inside.

"It's still inside. We almost definitely injured it in the fight, but if we extract it now, we might be able to save it." They began carefully cutting into the metal and circuits, and had nearly gotten to the center before they found the body, weak and unresponsive. They cut its bonds with the Jackal, and slid the body out onto the floor. It was in poor shape, lacking any outer covering, exposing the slick innards. The lower part of the body terminated just before the hip, with silvery viscera trailing out. It had four gunshot wounds in its back, but it was still alive. Oberon gently carried the body out to their ship, and the four left Venus with a silent rage against the Corpus.


End file.
